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Planning commission gives go-ahead to build plant on 46 acres off 124th Avenue

Sherwood has given the go-ahead for the construction of a new water treatment facility that will treat drinking water as it makes its way from Wilsonville to Hillsboro.

On Dec. 8, the city’s planning commission unanimously approved the facility, which will be built on 46 acres of land just west of Southwest 124th Avenue that will be accessed along a future roadway, Southwest Blake Street.

The unanimous decision by the commission had no additional conditions of approval, according to Erika Palmer, the city’s planning manager.

Willamette Water Supply Program is building a 30-mile pipeline from an intake facility along the Willamette River in Wilsonville, a project that will be able to provide up to 60 million gallons of water each day but could provide as much as 120 million gallons of water each day. Water from the pipeline will then be sent to the state-of-the-art treatment plant in Sherwood before being sent to Hillsboro residents as well as customers in the Tualatin Valley Water District and Beaverton.

Construction of the facility is expected to begin as early as late 2021 and will occur in phases that will last through late 2025, according to Marlys Mock, a spokesperson for the program.

“The recent Sherwood Planning Commission approval is a significant milestone as we move plans for the Willamette Water Supply System Water Treatment Plant forward,” Mock said. “We look forward to continuing to engage the city of Sherwood and our surrounding community as we construct this important regional infrastructure and begin operations for a new seismically-resilient drinking water supply for partner agencies by 2026.”

Much of the pipeline has already been installed and more is expected along Southwest Tualatin-Sherwood Road between Teton Avenue and Langer Farms Parkway in 2021. That will include widening the roadway there to five lanes — two lanes in each direction and a center lane — in a joint project between the Willamette Water Supply Program and Washington County Department of Land Use and Transportation.

The treatment plant will include a forest viewing platform that oversee a nearby wetlands area and include accompanying educational elements about the site, said Mock.

Installation of the treatment plant will join other ongoing projects along Southwest 124th Avenue. Trammell Crow is building five buildings on the southwest corner of Tualatin-Sherwood Road and 124th Avenue within Sherwood city limits, while a 108,000-square-foot Portland General Electric operations center is being constructed on the southeast corner of Tualatin-Sherwood Road an 124th Avenue in Tualatin.

In 2012, Sherwood voters approved annexing the 300 acres of land on the east side of 124th Avenue, south of Tualatin-Sherwood Road, in an area known as the Tonquin Employment Area.

Read the article here. Sherwood Gazette, Ray Pitz,  December 21 2020